When the war takes everything Carrie Hatcher has, including her husband and leaving her with no way to support herself and her beloved servants, she decides there’s only one way to provide the basic necessities of life- by selling the one thing that truly is hers- her body.

With a bag of gold, Colonel Wesley McEwen has gotten the lovely Widow Hatcher to agree to something she will most likely come to regret later; to submit to his every request for a period of one week. Poor Carrie has some misguided ideas of what men want when they “pay” for the favors of a woman, but Wesley’s about to give her some much needed instruction on what they truly want; in the most pleasant ways he can devise.

For all the steamy sex woven through the latter part of the book, there is also some very stark realism throughout the totality of the story about the war and what people (especially lone women) could be reduced to. I liked the stoicism of the women-their strength, heart and determination to overcome no matter the cost to their “soul”, while the compassion of the Colonel was most endearing. This one was one to put on the re-read shelf to enjoy again.